“…More Jewish” continued

For sure, a legalistic following of the law is not what I’m advocating in my previous post. As I mentioned, “Sabbath” (and you may choose not to use that terminology) will look different for everyone. The key questions remain: In what ways are you living counter-culturally in a society that connects the value of a person to what he or she is able to produce? How are you redeeming God’s gift of time in a world that stretches it thin with shallow pursuits? How much time are you “offering” on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis to stop the usual grind and hear from God?

My wife and I have most certainly NOT perfected this in our life (who has?), but God is definitely working on us in this regard. I only share my experience to encourage others to take seriously God’s ancient call for “time redemption.”

Here are some questions we have been working through that relate to the witness created by our practice of Sabbath (borrowed from Mark Love):

– How does the practice of Sabbath demonstrate the nature of the kingdom? How is this good news?

– How is the practice of Sabbath embodied in the ministry of Jesus? What does it say about the nature of God?

– Is Sabbath a death and resurrection practice? How is it a saving practice? What does it save us from and what does it save us for?

– How does the practice of Sabbath critique the way things are? How is this a departure from business as usual, from life as determined by the principalities and powers of this age?

– Where are the places of resistance in our culture? In the church?

– Why is this hard to believe?

– Why would the Sabbath way of life require a community? The power of the Spirit?

Those may or may not be rhetorical questions — if you have input regarding the practice of Sabbath or “time redemption”, we’d love to hear it.